Page 76 - DCAP405_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Unit 5: An Agile View of Process

Notes

Task Visit the website of which incorporates the extreme programming and make a note
on the advantages of extreme programming.

5.2.2 Adaptive Software Development

Speculate

In complex environments, planning is a paradox. According to CAS theory, outcomes are
unpredictable. Yet wandering around, endlessly experimenting on what a product should look
like is not likely to lead to profitability either. “Planning,” whether it is applied to overall
product specifications or detail project management tasks, is too deterministic a word. It carries
too much historical baggage. “Speculate” is offered as a replacement.
When we speculate, it’s not that we don’t define a mission to the best of our ability. (I use
“mission” as a summary term for objectives, vision, goals, and outline requirements.) It simply
admits the obvious — in some important dimensions of our mission statements, we are more
than likely wrong. Whether we misread our customer’s needs, or technology changes, or
competitors come out with a better mousetrap, the probability of mistakes is high. So let’s be
honest, postulate a general idea of where we are going, and put mechanisms in place to adapt. In
a complex environment, following a plan produces the product you intended — just not the
product you need.

Figure 5.2: The Adaptive Cycle

Speculate
Collaborate

Learn
Collaborate

Managing in a complex environment is scary as hell — it is also a blast. If we can’t predict (plan),
then we can’t control in the traditional management sense. If we can’t control, then a significant
set of current management practices is no longer operable, or more specifically, only operable
for those parts of the development process that are predictable.

What are the uses of collaboration in adaptive software development?
Did u know?
Collaboration, in this context, portrays a balance between managing the doing (the main
thrust of traditional management) and creating and maintaining the collaborative
environment needed for emergence.

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